Improvement in exhaust mechanisms



J. D. BUTLER.

EXHAUST-MECHANISM.

No.17Z,Z45. Patented Jan.18. 1876.

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ILFETERS. FHOTO-UTHOGRAPNER, WASHINGXON. D C

UN TED STATES PATENT OFFIo'E.

JAMES B. BUTLER, OF LANCASTER, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO CHARLES H. WATERS, OF GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

' IMPROVEMENT'IN EXHAUST MECHANISMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 172,245, dated January 18,1876; application filed August 4,1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES D. BUTLER, of Lancaster, Massachusetts, have invented an Exhaust Mechanism, of which the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to soften the sound of escaping steam or air, or other fluid, as in the safety-valve delivery of a steamboiler and in the jet-discharge of the vacuum train-brake, and in various other similar cases.

Figure 1 is a section of my apparatus taken through the line a b of Fig. 3. Fig. 2 is an end view. Fig. 3 is a top view. Fig. 4 is an end View of a modified form of my invention.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section through line 0 d of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a sectional View through line 0 f of Fig. 7 of another form of my invention.

' Fig. 7 is a top view of the form shown in Fig.

6. Fig. 8 is a section through line g'h of Fig. 9 of another form of the invention. Fig. 9 is a side view of the form shown in Fig. 8.

In Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A represents a pipe which may be attached to any ordinary escapepipe. It is placed tangent to the inner surface of the chamber B. The steam, in entering the chamber from the pipe, is deflected by the surface of this chamber taking the direction shown by the arrows in Fig. 2. As the steam fills the chamber it necessarily takes a spinning or rotary motion about the axis of the chamber. The volume of steam in the chamber then finds its escape into the open air through the pipe C. It will be seen that the steam, in entering the chamber B from the pipe A, is unchecked by any direct obstacle, but is only gradually deflected by the curve of the inner surface of the chamber. There is, therefore, no violent concussion, such as there would be if the steam should strike fairly against a surface placed directly across its path, and very little resistance is offered to the free delivery of the steam into the chamber. The steam in the chamber B escapes through the pipe C by its own expansive force without partaking of the motion of the column entering the chamber from the pipe A, since the force of the latter is expended entirely in a direction perpendicular to the center line of C. The pipe C being considerably larger than A, the steam is delivered through it with a corresponding reduction of its velocity, and, therefore, of its sharp hissing sound. But the steam in chamber B having a rotary motion, the escaping column in pipe C would naturally partake of the same movement, and the centrifugal force in the steam will cause it to scatter as it leaves the pipe C, and to make unnecessary noise. rotation of the column of steam in C, vanes D are fastened to the inside of this pipe. As the steam strikes against these its rotation is checked. The ends of these vanes toward the chamber B are tapered to a point, so that column, as it moves, is gradually checked from its center outward, instead of abruptly,

as it would be if it struck at once upon the full width of the vanes. The ribs E, in chamber B, also serve to check the rotary movement of the volume of steam. Indeed, any longitudinal ribs in either B or C will answer the same purpose, or any change in the section of the pipe 0 from end to end will also answer. As the pipe A enters the chamber B at a greater distance from the axis of B and C than is the inner surface of the pipe C, the rotary motion of the surface of the column of steam in C will be proportionately less than the speed at which the steam is discharged into the chamber B from A, even though there be no vanes or ribs in B or C, and the greater the diameter of B and the distance of A from the axis of B and C relatively to the diameter of C the smaller will be the tendency to rotation in C. But, on the other band C may be made as large as B, so as to be simply the extension of the latter, although, in such an arrangement, the best results ought not to be expected.

When steam is discharged .Iruul a pipe into the open air there is often sudden expansion and concussion. In order to make this gradual I have the end of the pipe crown-shaped, or serrated, so that at the roots of the teeth there shall be a slight escape, which shall.

gradually increase until the points F are reached by the discharging steam.

I am aware that attempts have been made to soften the discharge of steam by placing obstructions across the line of discharge, and also by simply enlarging the delivery-pipe,

To stop the but my invention is believed to be peculiar in causing the force of the blast from the pipe A to expend itself in rotating the mass of steam in chamber B, and in causing the delivery from the chamber to take place under the simple influence of the pressure there without partaking of the motion of the column of steam entering from pipe A, except so far as relates to the tendency to the rotation of the escaping column in Q.

In Figs. 4 and 5, G is the chamber; H, an opening from it and J, vanes inclined so that the steam, in order to escape between them, must take a motion opposite to that imparted by the jet from the entering pipe I. The course of the steam is into the chamber G; from this chamber, through the hole H, into the space between the vanes, then between the vanes into the space L, and then through the annular opening between the head K and the shell M into the open air. As the motion of the steam escaping between the vanes is opposite to that imparted to the mass by jet from pipe I, this escape must occur without receiving any direct impulse from the movement of the entering jet. In Figs. 6 and 7,

the vanes O and P, on the inner and outer circles, respectively, of the chamber N, are soset that the steam can escape between them only by reversing the motion imparted by the entering jet. The steam passing between vanes O escapes through hole R and pipe S. In Figs. 8 and 9 the steam escapes from the chamber T by the pipe U in an opposite direction from that given by the entering jet through pipe'V.

There are a great variety of forms which my invention may take, of which the above-described are but specimens. It is believed, however, that its comprehensiveness has been sufficiently illustrated to be distinctly apparcut.

I claim- 1. The combination of the chamber B with the entering tangent-pipe A, and with the discharging-pipe O, substantially as described.

2. The vanes D and ribs E, in combination with the chamber B and the pipes A and O, substantially as described.

3. The discharge-pipe O, with the serrated end, substantially as described.

JAMES D. BUTLER.

Witnesses: J. W. PARKER,

B. F. WYMAN. 

